-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- When Iranian director Asghar Farhadi accepted his Golden Globe for best foreign film last month , he spoke a few words of thanks , paused and announced he wanted to say something about his people . Two nations held their breath .

`` They are a peace-loving people , '' Farhadi said , and then was gone . Brief though it was , his comment was eloquent , to the point and unsettling in its simplicity .

Likewise his movie . Much of the reason that `` A Separation '' has made such an impact in the West -- a virtual sweep of the critics ' prizes , a Golden Globe and two Oscar nominations , including a virtually unheard of nod for a non-U.S. screenplay -- is that it is n't a foreign film at all -LRB- except for all that Farsi -RRB- .

If anything , it 's a feel-good movie , albeit in a wildly perverse way : Having experienced the anguish of Farhadi 's characters , the viewer comes away with the inescapable sense of our common humanity , the resounding sense that we 're all in this life together . If that sounds clichÃ © d , so be it .

This is not a politically acceptable position , of course .

Amid the glib militarism of Republican presidential candidates , the bellicosity of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the nuclear recklessness of the mullahs , `` A Separation '' drives home the oft-ignored fact that Iran is full of educated , sophisticated and cultured people who do n't necessarily agree with their government either . Particularly the lead characters of `` A Separation . ''

Farhadi does n't ask for trouble . No one in the cast declares that , `` Our impossible , infuriatingly theocratic regime is anti-intellectual , anti-opportunity , anti-woman , anti-freedom , anti-human . '' Nevertheless , Simin -LRB- Leila Hatami -RRB- wants out . A young mother of Tehran 's educated middle-class , she wants a better life for her daughter , Termeh -LRB- played by the director 's daughter , Sarina Farhadi -RRB- and -- why not ? -- a better life for herself .

She works , she takes classes , she harbors an intellectual curiosity . Under her hijab , her hair is dyed an unnatural but quite chic shade of red , which more or less reflects her disposition . She is adamant . She 's going , whether her husband , Nader , is willing or not . And he 's not . His father is suffering from dementia and ca n't be left behind . And , as Islamic law demands that the husband decides where the daughter goes , Termeh is staying , too .

Without giving away the whole plot , it 's worth saying that `` A Separation '' snowballs into a demi-tragedy propelled by institutional hubris : Simin is judged by the system to have insufficient grounds for divorce , but what can happen otherwise when the grounds for her request are the very system that is denying her the divorce ?

Nader , needing to find a housekeeper who can care for his father while he goes to work , rashly hires Razieh -LRB- Sareh Bayat -RRB- , a woman so fearful of religious impropriety that she has to call for a ruling before she can change the incontinent old man out of his soggy clothes . That she can not touch Nader 's father , played by Ali-Asghar Shahbazi , lest she violate some religious tenet , verges on the absurdly comedic . The series of misunderstandings and various acts of dishonesty that intertwine so gracefully and with such a dreadful sense of destiny , are all predicated on a system that denies reality .

As such , it can find a mirror in an American political system in which politicians are willing to mouth any absurdity to appeal to a noisy , marginalized and in many cases fundamentalist minority , whose inclinations toward freedom , intellect , diversity and reason do n't place them all that far from the mullahs . Frankly , you do n't want either group to have a nuke .

But that makes `` A Separation '' something of a dangerous movie , at least among those for whom division among peoples spells political profit .

At a time of nationalism-cum-tribalism , and a seemingly sweaty eagerness for the United States and Iran to mix it up militarily , Farhadi 's camera cultivates emotional generosity : The point of view swings from objective to subjective , capturing the emotions of the characters via their shared point of view .

The perspective swings from Simin to Termeh to Razieh to Nader , the upshot being a marriage of perception , a unity of view , a sharing of experience not only among the characters , but the audience . It all adds up to an experience that is rare at the movies , directorially demanding and which creates the very phenomenon that makes `` A Separation '' unique and resonant .

You may walk out of the theater , but you ca n't walk out of the movie . Because its story is all around us .

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Anderson .

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John Anderson says Iranian film `` A Separation '' successful because themes not foreign

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The film tells story of woman determined to leave Tehran but is thwarted by rigid system

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He says the irrational paranoia that drives Iranian regime has echoes in right-wing U.S. politcs

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Anderson : At a time of saber-rattling between nations , the film shows common humanity